


I Can Fix This

by SyntheticSaturn



Category: MCSM, Minecraft (Video Game), Minecraft: Story Mode - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Ending, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Minor Violence, jesse uses they/them pronouns, tried my best to make the characters likeable while still keeping their personalities
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:20:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28266768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SyntheticSaturn/pseuds/SyntheticSaturn
Summary: "Jesse, please, don't take this away from me! I-I'll stop hurting people! I'll undo every terrible thing I've done, to the best of my ability! Really. I can fix this."Oh, but can he really?
Comments: 6
Kudos: 11





	I Can Fix This

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> how do i manage to get myself so invested in things with such small and/or inactive fanbases? there are like 3 mcsm writers other than me, and i don't even like the first season of this game, how am i HERE

(be sure to check out my twitter [@syntheticsaturn] or my deviantart [zoeb728] for more art like this!)

The distortion clouding Romeo's being grew with each blow until he could hardly remember where he was. The only thing keeping his mind in reality were the pulsating aches scattered around his body. The world around him spun, sending him to his knees. His head refused to rise, only allowing him to see as high as Jesse's boots. Through the corruption's short beeps and screeches came metallic clicks.

"You won't hurt anyone again."

Jesse's glare burned into Romeo's skull. They slid the shining gauntlet back on their hand and wound back in preparation to strike. A glint managed to catch the Admin's eye before they swung.

"Jesse, please, don't take this away from me!" The Admin swung his head up and wailed as if he were begging for his life. "I-I'll stop hurting people! I'll undo every terrible thing I've done, to the best of my ability! Really. I can fix this." His arms swayed like an ancient house ready to topple at the foundation.

Jesse _laughed_.

"Alright, are we, uh, gonna knock this guy out or what?" Jack chuckled nervously, keeping his distance from the colorful, exhausted man on the floor.

"If you don't whack his ugly red head in the next _three seconds_ , I'll go over there and do it myself," Petra snapped.

Jesse's arm faltered—whether it was out of guilt or pity they'll never know. The use of their name must've thrown them off, they thought. The worst part was how well it worked. "I... don't know what to do. I-I can't–"

"This really isn't a good time for this," Petra said as she hurried to rip the gauntlet from their hand. Jesse spun around to keep it from her grasp.

"Wait! Wait, listen to me!" She didn't. "What if he really does want to change? I know he — ow! — he abused his powers before, but he can learn to — PETRA."

"Are you _brain dead_? You actually believe the guy who trapped all those people under bedrock with massive monsters? Or blew up the city as an intimidation tactic? Oh, or the fun part — sent us to Super Mega Prison From Hell?! Er- Heck?"

"And, may I remind you, the cause of the problem is the blasted powers of his?" Jack added.

Jesse tore their arm away from Petra's and their gaze, against their will, drifted back to the incapacitated Admin. He shifted one knee up in front of him, resting his arm and forehead on it, to better support his trembling body. Jesse only saw desperation in him, and their sympathy got the best of them.

"He can't hurt anyone as he is now. I wanna give him a chance to right his wrongs, y'know?"

Romeo's red sclera glowed brighter out of joy. "...I don't really deserve this. Th-thank you, Jesse. So much." He strained himself trying to stand, startling Jack when he swayed in his direction. "You won't regret it — cross my heart!"

Both Petra and Jack scowled.

"Don't make them change their mind," Petra warned with a sharp glance.

With their auric-gloved hand, Jesse gave Romeo a firm grasp, careful not to sap more of his energy. He shuddered at the sudden numbness spreading up his arm. They weren't holding on particularly tightly, which led him to believe it was a result of the gauntlet's power-removing... powers. Trailing behind Jesse and their friends, he silently hoped it wasn't somehow weakening him this way.

"Not to doubt your judgment, but... You're really just _letting_ this guy into town?" Jack blurted out.

"Everything's gonna work out fine. I know what I'm doing. Probably."

• • •

"WOW that was horrific. WHY are we still alive?" Radar was the last to stumble out from the Terminal Space portal, and apparently the most disheveled as well. " _Uuuuggh_. You guys are better off than me right now, right? I'm just glad I managed to get that Enderman there in time."

"Okay, big guy, how about we start your atonement by tearing this mess down," Petra said, referring to the unsightly layer of bedrock.

Romeo felt the blood drain from his face. His only currently functional power was his flight, as far as he knew. "Right. Now don't get me wrong, I'd LOVE to, but, y'see..." He motioned to his generally chaotic appearance.

"Oh, riiiight. Is that gonna get better, or...?"

" _No_ idea."

This did not sit well with Jesse. "Good god, I'm making a mistake," Jesse groaned. "I can't believe I'm letting you off the hook like this. And I'm guessing the only way we'll get rid of this crud is if you don't have powers at all, right?"

"W-well, yes. But! But, hear me out! Let's wait a little while to see if the effects aren't permanent. Until then, I could help with... repairing Champion City, perhaps. That'd be a good start."

"You sure nobody's gonna know who you are? I'd imagine you wouldn't be welcomed very warmly, bud," Petra taunted. The fact hadn't even crossed his mind, and he wished it never did. All he wanted was to be liked, and he put himself the furthest from it.

"You guys are back?" Lukas hopped up the remaining steps, his breaths shallow and quick. "What about the bedr-ooooh whoa whoa whoa, isn't that the Admin? Why's he still here?!"

"Everything's under control, he had most of his powers beaten out of him and I can finish the job if I need to," Jesse reassured him, raising their gloved hand slightly. Romeo's spasming arm still remained clutched under their fingers, though luckily the tingling hadn't worsened.

Lukas studied the rapidly shifting face of Romeo with tensed eyebrows; he could easily recognize the flashes of slate-blue skin as the Admin's. His skeptical glare sent a sting into Romeo's heart, turning his ears a darker shade. He hadn't felt this amount of vulnerability in his life, and he was still an Admin for god's sake. After several seconds of pondering, Lukas decided to relieve Romeo of his distress.

"You're sure about this?" He made it sound like a statement rather than a question.

Jesse glanced uneasily between their friend and their prisoner. "I wanna give him another shot."

Radar finally broke the silence after an uncomfortable eight seconds. "I'm... gonna go get a shirt. If I stay here any longer I'm gonna have a panic attack."

• • •

_Were the shackles_ really _necessary?_

Romeo's own words repeated in his head as the redstone-powered door slammed shut. He supposed it was warranted after his actions, yet he couldn't help feel it was quite harsh considering they were essentially metal gloves. He could just barely find his way to the bed using the flickering torchlight seeping in from the door frame, as his own glaring, distorted lights didn't provide much light as they did agitate him. The chains welded to the middle of the floor of his sleeping quarters clinked and scraped unpleasantly across the concrete floor.

"Oh, this'll be _quite_ a night," he whispered to himself.

He was, unsurprisingly, correct. The chains were too short for him to roll over on his side, and eventually his hands began to ache from being weighted down by iron. With enough time he resorted to sitting on the floor against the bed with a blanket shielding him from the concrete. Not the most dignified method of sleeping, but it was better than no sleep at all. But, miraculously, he soon drifted off into unconsciousness.

When morning came (or at least presumably, since the cell had no windows), the bedraggled convict jolted awake from a percussive thud. Before he could even process the situation, the brilliance of a torch's flame was free to jab into his dilated eyes.

"Alright Redhead, Jess left us in charge of you for today. So, for your first task," Petra began as she unlocked the Admin's stiff hands from the shackles, "you're gonna need a whole lotta quartz blocks."

Romeo was less concerned about having to build — which would be no trouble with his flight ability — and more worried about somebody recognizing him, and his jarring physical condition wasn't helping. Stretching out his now-mobile hands, he scoured his mind for any idea of how to attract any less attention to himself. Now that he thought about it, he was certain to incur the wrath of every surviving citizen of Champion City as he had done in Beacontown, nothing could be done about that, but looking like a redstone repeater in public wasn't something he was looking forward to. At the very least his skin reverted to a solid blue-gray overnight. When his pupils finally constricted enough to open his eyelids, he found Radar shifting back and forth behind the doorway.

"Uh- yeah. There's a chest down the hall... plenty of blocks in there." Radar avoided eye contact with Romeo as if he were the sun.

As the three silently strode down to the box of building supplies, Romeo made himself to be as minimally threatening as possible; arms folded, gaze to the floor, following behind. The shimmering gauntlet around Petra's fist with a matching sword wasn't helping him relax, however.

The deafening silence made the journey last hours longer than it should have. Unfortunately, that was only the beginning — the doors sheltering them from Beacontown towered over Romeo, mocking him for the consequences to be faced behind them for his abuse of power. Romeo just about froze to the floor when Radar twisted the handle and breached the last line of defense from public humiliation.

"This way."

Petra once again trapped his arm in the gauntlet and practically dragged Romeo out into the open like a terrified dog on a leash. Already, fearful whispers and gasps were emitted from the parting crowd.

"That's him, isn't it? The real Admin?"

"Looks like Jesse got 'im good."

"Shh! What if it hears you?"

Petra tried to ease the people's minds. "Hey, hey, no worries guys. We're not gonna let this guy hurt anyone. Not without a fight, anyway."

But the knives got sharper.

"I wouldn't have trusted him, of all people..."

"Wonder why they didn't just finish him off after what he did."

"Why's he... _blinking_?"

"I hope they just throw him back in that portal and close it off. Wouldn't that be a lot safer?"

The Admin's palm began to sting from digging his nails into it.

"What if Jesse's wrong? About him wanting to change, I mean? What'll happen then?"

His attention is fixated on a section of the ground before him.

"If that _thing_ stays here another night, I'm moving out."

Someone trips trying to escape.

"Not so cocky without his fancy powers. What a spineless _jerk_."

Blocks of cobblestone begin to rise from the road, sending surrounding townsfolk and Radar into a panic.

"What the hell do you think YOU'RE doing?!" Petra shouts, yanking on Romeo's arm to throw him off-balance. With a frustrated grunt, he slammed the stones back to the ground, turning them to rubble. Heat and adrenaline flooded his head.

"Listen to me, I don't care how forgiving Jesse is, I'm _not_. Screw up again and see what happens." She tugged on his arm to urge him forward.

The sun suddenly glared through a hole in the bedrock ceiling, giving Romeo a reason to keep his head down.

• • •

About halfway to the demolished city, Radar cleared his throat. "Uhhm. Admin... Sir? From what we found out about you, I uh, don't think you're _completely_ bad."

Romeo barely glanced up.

"I mean, it seems like... you were, um, nice to your friends. Oh, s-uh, sorry if that's a touchy subject. I know that was... yeah. But my point is, y-you're not a bad person. I think."

"...Thank you, I guess." He was at a loss of words from there. The mention of his previous friends made him cringe. What did he know about the other Admins? And who else knew— Jesse, Petra, that Jack fellow, maybe? Radar's attempt at comfort was appreciated, but only sparked further rage.

"Yeah, I'll admit I kinda agree with Radar on that one," Petra muttered. "Although I still hate your guts for all the stuff you put me and my friends through... you got a heart in there somewhere." Her words were more successful with their intent.

Champion City's crumbled walls grew closer, reminding Romeo of the work he's created for himself and whoever has taken it upon themselves to waste their days rebuilding. His guilt far overshadowed any lingering fear of having vile words slung at him. Though, strangely, his body wasn't very tense. He felt at peace, almost. Building has always served as an outlet for Romeo's imagination, an escape from the outside world. If he's lucky he might be able to tune out the metaphorical stab wounds for a while.

"Alright. Got your blocks?" Petra asked the two with her.

Each of them gave her an affirming hum.

Petra shot a glance at the Admin, whose arm was still being numbed by the gauntlet.

"Behave yourself."

Romeo shook his sensationless arm to life after it was released. Each tingle began to feel like a needle breaking skin after such a stretch of time.

His mind was immediately flooded with a country's worth of sky-piercing towers and villas the size of entire neighborhoods. He took no hesitation in propelling himself up and onto the closest foundation to begin bringing his ideas to life. He guessed from the cylindrical walls he stood upon that it was once one of the glass towers he saw while in Beacontown. From the vague mental image and his own creative intellect, quartz and cyan glass soon took the shape of a marvelous, modernist citadel.

Surrounding workers took apparent note of Romeo's lively behavior as he placed blocks at his feet. Most only stared, but one had the nerve to call out to him.

"HEY! What's with the weird glowy coat ya got there, bud?"

Romeo's eyes widened as he stopped in his tracks, nearly doing a flip off the edge of the nearly-finished wall. He wanted to pretend he didn't hear anything and continue on with his project, cling to his joyful high any longer, but his obvious reaction would've made it impossible. He spun his head in the direction of the woman's voice with false confidence in his expression.

"Oh, you must mean me?"

"Yeah. You're not human, are ya? What brings somethin' like you here?"

This lady really has a way with words. "I'm, ehh... I-it's— Uff. Where I come from isn't important! All that matters is that I felt the need to help repair this city of yours, what with how miserable the place was looking, huh?"

"That's insanely suspicious."

 _Dammit_.

"Hey, I'm not just going to sit and watch you folks do all the work yourselves when I could do something about it!"

She wasn't buying any of it, and Romeo was running out of patience. Fortunately for him, Petra swooped in to his rescue.

"Hey, don't worry about that guy. He's with me," she reassured her.

"What even _is_ he?"

"Like he said, not important. He came here to help, that's all. No need to judge him based on appearance, ya know?"

"...If you say so."

The woman, along with any builders that heard the exchange, slowly returned to their duties.

Romeo had another person to whom he owed his life, it seems.

It wasn't long before he was adorning his creation with the finishing touches he envisioned. Gold blocks glittered along the edge of the rounded glass roof in a way that reminded him too much of the power-sapping gauntlet, but repressing thoughts was something Romeo did best, so he chose to do just that. Other builders stopped to momentarily appreciate his work as well (or so he hoped). He then leapt and floated off to find an especially desolate area of the town that was utterly unrecognizable. It seemed to be located just about at the center, so it may have been some sort of central plaza, but there was no way of knowing anymore. He landed himself in one of the massive craters, wondering what he could turn this destruction into. _His_ destruction. Destruction of homes. Lives. He couldn't help but feel his limbs grow heavy at the realization. Repression doesn't seem to be working so well anymore.

But _by god_ if he wasn't going to fix this now...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i tried so hard to pirate this game and it took me 20 minutes to find a functional rom for a console that i own, and i'm 100% positive it's because nobody is gonna bother to upload a rom of a game that two whole people are gonna play


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